This invention relates to systems, methods and computer program products used for learning, and more particularly, to systems, methods and computer program products used to increase the effectiveness of collaborative learning.
Traditionally, training of employees and others occurred in a classroom setting. Trainers, instructors and presenters (collectively xe2x80x9cpresenterxe2x80x9d) utilized various equipment, including chalkboards, overhead projectors and even computers that interact with overhead projectors, for delivering training sessions and other presentations (e.g. lectures, continuing education and sales presentations) to an audience. The audience typically is located in the same room as the presenter. The advantage of this situation is that it permits interaction between the presenter and the audience. The disadvantage, on the other hand, is that it requires either the audience or the presenter to travel to the location of the training session which requires the attendees or their employers to incur the cost of travel to the presentation location as well as the loss of productive time due to the travel.
More recently, training and other presentations have taken place over xe2x80x9cclosed circuitxe2x80x9d television to remote audiences. In this situation, the audiences are located in a different location, even a different city, than the presenter. The presenter presents the visual and audio portions in the form of a lecture which is broadcast over closed circuit television to the various audiences located remotely from the presenter. Training and other presentation materials, in certain circumstances, may be forwarded to the remote locations in advance of the session such that the materials are handed out to the audience at the beginning of the session. As a result, the audience can refer to the training materials as the presenter delivers the training lecture on the closed circuit broadcast. The advantage of the closed circuit television session is that it avoids the expense and loss of productive time associated with the attendees traveling to the location of the session. On the other hand, in the closed circuit session, interaction between the audience and the presenter typically is nonexistent.
In recent years, with the advent of the Internet and the world wide web, systems used in training and other presentations have improved dramatically. These new training systems have not only increased the effectiveness of the learning experience but, at the same time, have decreased the cost of delivering the sessions as well as decreased the cost to attendees in attending the sessions. The materials can be presented to the audience utilizing the world wide web. In this environment, the presenter is located remotely from the audience. The audience may be located in a single location remote from the instructor or the audience may be located at multiple locations with a single person located at each of the multiple audience locations. The presenter interacts with the audience via the Internet.
Alternatively, the presenter can interact with the audience over a combination of the world wide web and telephone. In this instance, the training materials are distributed to the audience and accessed by the audience via the world wide web while the audio portion of the training event takes place via a telephone conference call either with or without the assistance of an operator. As a result, the audience can view the presentation materials over the world wide web while carrying on a conversation with the presenter via the telephone.
In this environment, the presenter utilizes software available from one or more vendors, such as, for example, a software xe2x80x9ctoolxe2x80x9d marketed by Placeware, a software xe2x80x9ctoolxe2x80x9d marketed by Contigo, or a software xe2x80x9ctoolxe2x80x9d available from Web Ex, to prepare the presentation materials.
It also is possible for presenters to utilize another entity to provide the presentation software such as that available from Placeware, Contigo or Web Ex and a telephone operator to implement the training event. As a result, the conference call provider provides the software as well as the operator assisted telephone conference call capabilities in addition to the visual presentation in presenting the seminar to the audience which is remotely located from the presenter.
Unfortunately, the prior art systems do not provide the flexibility or the ability to transfer the information, expertise and knowledge in such a manner to improve the learning experience. For example, the audience may not be able to retain all of the information, expertise and knowledge dispensed during the learning event.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a collaborative learning system, method and computer program product.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a collaborative learning system for enhancing the learning experience.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a collaborative learning system that can be archived and easily accessed for enhancing the learning experience.
These and other objects are provided according to the present invention by a collaborative learning system which executes on a computer network system utilizing the world wide web and the telephone network. The collaborative learning system comprises a number of modules including a pre-event module, an event module and a post-event module. The pre-event module prepares the learning materials for the event for delivery by a presenter over the backbone system to an audience which is located remotely from the presenter. The event is designed and the content, including the learning materials, for the event is optimized by the pre-event module. The event content, which comprises audio content and visual content, is designed and optimized by the pre-event module. The pre-event module also xe2x80x9cchunksxe2x80x9d the content by categorizing and indexing the content to improve and optimize the content as well as to enhance the xe2x80x9con demandxe2x80x9d accessibility of the content by the post-event module.
The event module delivers the event over a backbone system to the audience which is located remotely from the presenter. The backbone system comprises a telephone network for delivering the audio content and a computer network for delivering the visual content of the event. The visual content that is delivered by the event module includes streaming video and slides. In addition, the event module also receives questions from the audience, filters questions from the plurality of questions received from the audience, and presents the filtered questions to the presenter. The event module also provides the presenter""s response to the questions either privately to one or more members of the audience or publicly to all members of the audience. Still further, the event module polls the audience as well as presents results of the polling to the audience. The questions received by the event module may be received by telephone, at a web site or via electronic mail.
The post-event module creates follow-up training materials and delivers the follow-up training materials to one or more members of the audience and also to other individuals or entities that were not members of the audience for the event. In addition, the post-event module also receives responses to the follow-up training materials from one or more members of the audience. The follow-up training materials may include case studies, an archived copy of the event which are created by encoding a video of the event and storing the encoded event video, and documents related to the event which also are stored in association with the encoded event video. The follow-up training materials are stored on a microsite which permits on demand access twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, to the entire archived event as well as to xe2x80x9cchunks,xe2x80x9d i.e., targeted portions, of the archived event.